Always the boy with the bread
by queenofclichayy
Summary: When Peeta opens up a bakery, he begins to question Katniss' intentions for staying with him. Will he find love with another who appreciates his other qualities? WARNING: Spoilers for the third book.
1. Chapter 1

_**MASSIVE SPOILERS FROM THE THIRD BOOK. DON'T READ IF YOU LIKE, HAVEN'T READ THEM ALL.**_

**Always the boy with the bread – Part 1**

Katniss bit into her doughnut, lashings of cream flowing from it's doughy goodness and dripping down her mouth. She didn't both licking it up; she was too busy enjoying to calorie full treat, dusted in powdery, white sugar.

Peeta's eyes drooped, sadly in a way which indicated that he was sad. Things just hadn't been the same lately. Ever since he'd re-built and opened the family bakery in District 12 Katniss changed. She's gained at least five pounds in a matter of weeks and only answered him when he waved a loaf of bread around in her face, wafting that oh-so-good, bready smell around her nostrils.

She was driving business away too. "_The Boy with the Bread Bakery_" had been steadily losing money, because Katniss kept eating the produce. He sometimes wondered if a combination of years of starving and the food in the arena had psychologically damaged her and given her an unhealthy attitude towards eating, but he'd shaken that idea aside. He'd obviously been looking into things too much.

He sometimes wondered if it was a strange coincidence that the day she'd chosen Peeta over muscular Gale had been the day he'd announced he planned to re-open the bakery. One time he'd asked her and she just just looked around uncomfortably and said, "Peeta, Peeta. The boy with the bread. How could I pick Gale over you? I mean, what is he? A blacksmith or something govermentish? No food to be gained there- err, I mean, Gale killed my sister inadvertently! The Bastard."

"Shut up Katniss! That's a lie and you know it! Gale was conceived within a legal marriage and- oh, you didn't mean that kind of "bastard". I get'cha." It had put his worries to bed for sometime, but her sudden weight gain and the way she slept with several loaves of his fine bread tucked under her arm each night brought back every insecurity.

"Mmmmm." She said, indicating the doughnut was good and tucking into one of Peeta's freshly bakes loaves. "Fuck me," she swallowed, "this bread's so good."

"Y-you want to have sex?" he asked hopefully and good-naturedly.

She looked looked appalled, "N-no, no, no, no. I err, I can't do that. It'd be insensitive."

"How?" he asked, miffed.

Standing up in rage she scowled at him, "God Peeta, my sister's DEAD. How could you expect me have sex now! Where's your respect!"

He sighed, "I just don't get how your sister being dead means we can't have sex. I mean, we're a couple now, aren't we?"

"Peeta, it's disrespectful! Don't make me wish I'd chosen Gale."

"Sorry!" he said quickly. She threatened to leave him for Gale at least three times a day. One time she'd actually stormed out to find him, but he'd been too busy making mass-war weapons to hang out with her and they didn't really see each other anyway. He had a government job or something. "How can I make it up to you?"

She looked at him coyly, "I think you know..."

"Katniss, that's your fifth loaf today!"

"PRIM'S DEAD AND-"

"Fine, fine! I'll make you some bread. I didn't know you were still hungry."

"I'm always hungry." she replied.

He privately thought this might be because she felt so cold and empty after being forced into murdering other children and the association between food and comfort had become warped, altering her perception of eating forever, but once again, he'd probably looked too far into it.

As he got to work on a fresh loaf he sighed. He wasn't really sure what to do and he didn't have any bro's to ask for girl advice. He thought of Gale and how muscular he was and how Gale would never have any problems with women. Peeta knew Gale used to get off with women behind the bike sheds all the time before he'd fancied Katniss. He was such a man.

Peeta wished he could be a manly man like Gale.

"I wish I could be a manly man, like Gale." he muttered to himself, waiting for the yeast to foam up. "Gale would know what to do..." he trailed off and decided he'd go and ask manly man Gale for his manly help down at the blacksmiths or maybe at that government job he had. Something like that.


	2. Chapter 2

_**The second instalment of the fascinating tale. Will Peeta get to the bottom of Katniss' problems? Will he find true love? Will Gale be completely in character and not at all cowboy like? **_

**Always the boy with the bread – part 2**

He knocked on Gale's mass-war weapons gallery/ blacksmith studio/ important government office door. He heard heavy, solid, many footsteps approaching him and then came a strong, muscular arm around the door.

"Peeta?" He said, grimly.

"Gale." Peeta said, grimly.

Gale looked grizzled, like a bear. Like a big, manly bear. He had mud on his face and his teeth were vaguely blacked (as blacksmiths often are), but not in a horrible way, in a sexy way.

"You look well." Gale said, "Come in...if you must." his voice was gruff, as though dust had settled in his throat. Or maybe even grit on a bad day. Peeta stared at him, awe struck, clothed in a ripped, lose, dirty shirt that showcased his sturdy form well.

_Why did Katniss choose me over this sexy man? _Peeta thought to himself. _Oh yeah...the bomb thing. _

They reached his studio and it was covered in all sorts of things, from hi-tech devices, to anvils and even the odd dangerous bomb. "I uh..." nerves overcame him amongst such an intimidating man, but he had to be strong; he needed answers."I came to talk about Katniss."

Gale turned away, half of his face concealed by shade, "Urgh. I-I don't want to talk about her. If you've come to rub it in my face-"

"No, no."

"Huh? Should'a known. You always were nice. You're alright, kid." Gale said, picking up a nearby cocktail stick and twiddling it between his teeth.

"I'm the same age as you, but thanks." he persevered. "Look, I'm worried she's only with me for my bakery... she's gained so much weight since we've been together. She's like a house." Peeta gestured her largelyness by puffing out his cheeks and sculpting rings in the air with his made-for-baking delicate hands.

Gale grunted, "Listen kid, one day you're gonna wake up and smell the fresh loaf. Katniss she's-"

"No-" Peeta interjected, he wasn't ready.

"You're ready to hear this, kid. She's-"

"Please don't-"

"WHEN'RE YOU GOAN WAKE UP AND REALISE? SHE'S ONLY WITH YOU FO' YO' BREAD, PEETA!" Gale yelled, his face contorting, a mad glint in his eyes.

But Peeta shook his head. "No." He wouldn't believe it.

"YOU'RE THE BOY WITH THE BREAD TO HER AND...AND...and that's all you'll ever be, boy-O." Gale's words were soft, unlike his abs. "I'm sorreh, but y'all needed to know the truth."

Peeta sank to the floor, sadly. He bakery, floury hands grasping his hair and pulling in desperation. "BUT WHAT IF I DON'T WANT TO BE THE THE DAMN BOY WITH THE DAMN BREAD ANYMORE! HUH? WHAT IF-"

"What if you wanted to be the blacksmith's man?" Gale said, his eyes covered by shadow. He'd donned a wide rimmed, suede hat as a horse trotted in through the stable door. Glae swiftly mounted it.

Looking up slowly, Peeta's eyes met Gale's greys. "What?" Could he have misunderstood? Could Gale really have meant...?

"I like you, kid. You've got potential to be great. Hows about you use those hands for something else," Gale's eyebrows waggled suggestively, "like forging and welding machinery that needs welding and re-shaping?"

Peeta's eyes watered with emotional goodness. "I-I..." he could feel his feelings for Katniss ebbing away down the drain of love and a new water rising; feelings for Gale. Intense ones at that.

"But you always seemed like-"

"Like what, kid? Like I loved old Kitty-Kat? T'was always you, Peety- always you." Gale approached him, but not menacingly, sexily. "I lurve you, Peet." then his blackened, dirty lips met Peeta's clean, soft ones. The juxtaposition was not at all ironic or symbolic.

"I'll leave her for you. Someone who doesn't just want me for my mad, baking skillz, but for my strong, able and stocky body."

Gale smirked, darkly, "But you'll still bake breaded snacks and the like, won' ya, kid?"

"Um, yes?" Peeta agreed, uncertainty in his voice, which he shook off hastily. "Anyway, I'm off now, going to dump Katniss. See you later."

When Peeta was gone Gale smiled to himself, in an oddly sinister, yet good-hearted way, "Hehe, well it looks like I goan done and bagged myself the boy with the bread."

As that's what he would always be.


End file.
